Armand V.

Feigenbaum

Quality Guru
Introduction
 Armand V. Feigenbaum, 1922 –
 His approach to quality is known as
 Total Quality Control (TQC)

 Doctorate at MIT
 Manager of world-wide operations and quality control at
General Electric Company
 President of General Systems Company
 Book: “Total Quality Control”
 Discovered by the Japanese in 1950’s
Life And Contributions
 Feigenbaum was the first to define a systems engineering approach
to quality. Feigenbaum’s concept of total quality control, known
today as total quality management (TQM), combines management
methods and economic theory with organizational principles.

 He began his career with General Electric (GE) in 1937 as an

apprentice toolmaker and management intern.

 He entered Union College in Schenectady, NY, in 1938 to study

engineering.

 When he graduated in 1942, he joined GE as a full-time design

engineer. Later in 1943, he was named manager of quality control
for the Schenectady Works plant in New York.
 He went on to graduate school at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and
was later promoted to GE’s corporate headquarters in New York City to serve as the
executive champion for quality.

 Feigenbaum served as the American Society of Quality (ASQ) president from 1961 to
1963 and co-founded the International Academy for Quality with Kaoru Ishikawa of
Japan and Walter Masing of Germany.

 In 1968 Feigenbaum established General Systems Co. (GSC), an engineering firm to

further research technology management (Watson).

 While working at GE, Feigenbaum applied the lessons he learned at MIT to examine
observations about how productivity improvement could be achieved by driving quality in
a different way from how it had been.
Philosophy
 Total approach, systemic attitude

 All functions in an organization should be involved in the

quality process

 Quality must be built into the product, not inspected out.

 He defines quality as
 “Best for the customer use and selling price”
Philosophy
 He defines Quality Control as:
 “an effective method for coordinating the quality maintenance and
quality improvements efforts of the various groups in an
organization so as to enable production at the most economical
levels which allow for full customer satisfaction”

 The systemic nature of his philosophy is explicit from the

outset
 There is need to manage from a systemic nature
 Dealing with interactions across internal and external organization
boundaries and at all levels within them
 And dealing with suppliers, customers and other stakeholders
Philosophy
 He addresses the issue of building quality
 Quality problems can be eradicated by paying attention to the quality
issue from the conception of the idea, right through to delivery of the first
and subsequent items

 Two constraints of Feigenbaum’s definition of quality:

 Customer use
 Selling price

 The issue of selling price indicates Feigenbaum perceives limitations

to the expectations of quality
 E.g.: There will be quality differential, perhaps in terms of longevity,
performance or reliability between a car costing 10 000 $ and a car
costing 100 000 $

 Implies developing an understanding of the real use to which a

customer will put the product
Philosophy
 His definition of quality control emphasizes the integral
nature of the quality process:
 Stresses “co-ordination” of maintenance and improvements
efforts across “groups”
 recognition of the human relations aspects of the organization

 Summary
 Total approach
 Emphasis on designing for quality
 Involving all departments
 Recognition of the human relations
 Statistical methods are used as necessary
His contributions to the quality
 The concept of "Total quality control” to the comprehensive,
companywide system for achieving the most economical cost & full
customer satisfaction.

 The concept of a "hidden" plant —the idea that so much extra work
is performed in correcting mistakes that there is effectively a hidden
plant within any factory.

 Accountability for quality: Because quality is everybody's job, it may

become nobody's job—the idea that quality must be actively
managed and have visibility at the highest levels of management.

 The concept of quality costs.

Assumptions
1. His explicit assumption of a world composed of
systems
 Interrelationships between all aspects within the
organizations and its environment or market
 Recognizes the contribution made by suppliers
 Recognizes the constraints imposed by customer

1. Human relationships are a basic issue in quality

achievement
 Management thinking made by the human relations
school occurred in the time of his early work
 Assumptions
3. Focuses attention on the whole enterprise
 From suppliers to users, through every function and to all groups
involved
4. Full customer satisfaction. Implies awareness of :
 Customer needs and expectations within the organization
 The need for change to satisfy them.
5. Continuous improvement is desirable and achievable
4 Management fundamentals of
Total Quality
1. There is no such thing as a permanent quality level.

2. A hallmark of good management is personal leadership

in mobilizing the quality knowledge, skill, & positive
attitudes of everyone in the organization to recognize
the importance of quality.
3. Quality is essential for successful innovation because
of 2 reasons
 The greatly increased speed of new product development.
 When a product design is likely to be manufactured in several
countries , the entire development process must be clearly &
visibly structured.

4. Quality & cost are complementary not conflicting

business objectives.
 Methods
Feigenbaum’s four steps to quality

His philosophy has been summarized to 4 steps

1. Set quality standard

2. Appraise conformance to standards

3. Act when standards are not met

4. Plan to make improvements

 Methods

 The measurement of “operating quality costs” is an

important tool.

1. Prevention costs, including quality planning and other costs

associated with preventing non conformance and defects
2. Appraisal costs, including inspection costs
3. Internal failure costs, including costs arising from scrap and
rework
4. External failure costs, including warranty costs and
complaints
 Methods
 Feigenbaum’s concept of total quality extends from
product development right through to product use

 Reductions in operating quality costs result from setting up a

total quality system for two reasons:

1. Lack
of existing effective customer-orientated standards
may mean current quality of products is not optimal .

1. Expenditure on prevention costs can lead to a several fold

reduction in internal and external failure costs
 Summary

• By measuring quality at every critical stage, the total costs of

running the organization will be reduced.

• Feigenbaum’s approach is oriented towards management

responsibility and involve effective team working across the
organization.
Successes and failures
 Feigenbaum’s approach has been successful
 His recognition of quality as a way of running organizations, rather
than a secondary activity was a breakthrough in this area
 Many organizations today continue to think of quality as an added
extra
 Many organization focus on “badge hunting” through a quality
management system rather on survival through quality products or
services

 His systemic concept of “total” – quality running throughout the

organization, from its input to its output has an immense value.
Successes and failures
1. It stresses a total or whole approach to quality
control
2. It places emphasis on the importance of
management
3. Socio-technical systems thinking is taken into
account
4. Participation is promoted
Successes and failures

 Further critique:

 The industrial orientation of the approach provides little value for

service-based organizations.

 Lack of clarity of method: ample instructions of what to do is not

supported on how to do it
Successes and failures
 Feigenbaum’s work says nothing about
identification or selection of tools.

 Feigenbaum assumes that people can and will work together

for improvement.

 However, his recognition that of the need to sell the total

quality concept, suggests that a degree of political or
coercive pressure may be brought to achieve the end result
 Critical review
 Three founding ideas of Feigenbaum’s work:
1. His acceptance of the systems paradigm
2. A belief in appropriate measurement
3. Recognition of participation as a means for change and
enabling creativity

 The lack of a well-developed, clear methodology

is a major drawback
 Management styles has a great factor in the success of
a TQC initiative
 A collaborative, team-based senior management is not
easily achieved or maintained
 Critical review
 Functionally structured companies normally have power
within each function
 Strong power bases may resist the perceived loss of individual or
function power that arises from any other orientation

 “Production led” companies are dominated by a particular power

group within a professional specialization.

 Adoption of a team based approach, where each profession is

valued for its contribution to the whole, e.g. in the form of a project
or matrix management system is unlikely in such companies.
 Critical review
 Feigenbaum has made a substantial contribution
to work in the field of quality
 Current development in quality management carry
powerful influences from his work.

 Enthusiasm for his approach must be tempered

by recognizing some weaknesses with respect to
 Methodology and cultural context.
 His work does not go beyond the industrial sector.
Awards and honors
 First recipient of ASQ's Lancaster Award
 ASQ 1965 Edwards Medal in recognition of "his origination and
implementation of basic foundations for modern quality control"
 National Security Industrial Association Award of Merit
 Member of the Advisory Group of the U.S. Army
 Chairman of a system-wide evaluation of quality assurance activities
of the Army Materiel Command
 Consultant with the Industrial College of the Armed Forces
 Union College Founders Medal
 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
 Life member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
 Life member of the American Society of Mechanical Engineers
 Life member of Plymouth Society of Marine Biology
 Quick Recap
Born : 1922

Known For “Total Quality Control”

It was a platform for all others gurus to work on.

Prevention Cost
Appraisal Cost
Internal Failure Cost
External Failure Cost
Was his Contribution

Quality For Him Was.

“Best for the customer use and selling price”

THANK YOU
quality is everybody’s job

First Person to take Quality to the threshold of HRM.

TQC is not a temporary quality improvement plan, it is guiding an ongoing practice and philosophy.